Annie & Heather do Hong Kong!

Alright, I've been working diligently on this blog post at work for the past week! haha

Finally..here it is...

It’s been some time since I’ve last written. Christmas came and went, as did New Years, Presidents’ Day, and Asia’s most important holiday, Lunar New Year. Last time I wrote I was at the 7 month mark. Today, I’m almost at the 10 month mark! I only have 67 full days left here in Korea and I’ve started to reflect on my time here, plan my next steps, and finish up any unfinished business.

December flew by! I celebrated Christmas with my close-knit group of friends. We all spent the night together on Christmas Eve so that it would feel more like being near family when we woke up the next morning! We made a lovely Christmas breakfast then showers were in order as well as Christmas tunes and movies! Our turkey dinner that we ordered from the same place as Thanksgiving arrived and we began the snaking and making of the eggnog! We had a beautiful dinner complete with plenty of red wine. After dinner, we were lazy and watched Home Alone.

I opened my gifts from home on Christmas Eve and I loved all of them! A huge thanks to anyone who sent me a Christmas gift! J

 Jeremy’s replacement, Leslie, arrived on the 27^th and stayed with me for two weeks. Getting a new co-worker is always exciting but having one leave sucks.

My Crazy Korean family! 

January – One week later, we all celebrated the New Year! We had to work on New Year’s Eve until 10:00 o’clock so after we got off, we headed straight downtown, popped champagne, and began the partying! Joel and I had decided to go on a ski trip with a large group of people that weekend so we left early around 1:00 am to catch a bus. It was a 4-5 hour trip up to the ski resort outside of Seoul and all 4-5 hours were spent, by most, drinking heavily. It was a party bus!

Once we arrived, we slept, then got up around 11 the next day and hit the slopes! It snowed all day and I must say that I was pretty impressed by the skiing in Korea. Their slopes are comparable to what we have in West Virginia; however, ours might be a little better. After skiing all day, we got back to our hotel room and hit up the hot tub! After the hot tub, a couple of the guys were dicking off in our hotel suite and ended up shattering the glass shower door. Needless to say, there was a huge mess of glass and some blood to clean up. Wild times! Later we had a big pizza party and I eventually passed out around 4 am. The next day I opted out of skiing and instead hit up the hot tub until the bus was to leave around 6. I was exhausted by the time we got back to Daegu, but overall it was a good weekend.

High-One Ski Resort outside of Seoul.

February – Lunar New Year was on the 2^nd, 3^rd, & 5^th of February this year, or also sometimes called the Chinese New Year. On the 2^nd, Heather, Karissa, and I headed to Hong Kong! Heather and I planned to go to Hong Kong together back in December when I found out she would be visiting and I had the next week off from work. Karissa finished her contract at the same time our vacation was starting and Hong Kong just so happened to be her first stop on her 5 week journey through SouthEast Asia! Therefore, we all partied together! I got a great deal on a flight from Busan roundtrip for less than 200 USD! Heather and I arrived earlier than Karissa and we were also staying in a different hostel than her. So, when we arrived, we made our way to our hostel at ChungKing mansions, which was pretty nice after we got up to the 12^th floor away from all the sketchy Middle Eastern men! We then headed out to get some food. Many places were closing early because of the upcoming holiday so we settled for some Sushi at this cool Japanese place.

Thursday the 3^rd – The next day we decided to check out Macau since we had gotten some rest the night before. It was a lovely day trip. Macau is a former Portuguese colony in Asia and people there today still speaking Portuguese AND they speak Chinese. Seeing a blend of these two very different and distinct cultures was quite unusual. It brought back some great memories from my trip to Portugal! We arrived by the ferry, which took about an hour, got through immigration (yes I got another cool stamp!) and then proceeded to the ‘older’ more historic part of town. We did a walking tour and it was practically identical to Portugal! The buildings, the architecture, even the sidewalks were the same! We also ate my favorite, Portuguese egg tarts! Soooo gooood! We had lunch at a Portuguese restaurant checked out the casino and fancy hotel area on the bus and then headed back to Hong Kong for the parade! We lined up for the parade nearly 2 hours before it started with some drinks. It was so crowded, comparable to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade in New York. It sucked. People were pushing and shoving constantly, I had to pee really badly, and the parade took almost another hour of waiting to finally reach us! The parade itself also sucked. It was very disappointing. It was more like a local parade or something; we didn’t get to see any of the cool Chinese dragons that we thought we would be able to see. We decided about half way through that we should have just watched it on the TV from our room. After the parade fiasco, we got something to eat at this Chinese diner type place. The food was pretty good but it was extremely busy so the service sucked. Oh well….we walked Karissa back to her hostel and then went to bed.

View from the peak. 

Friday the 4^th – This day we decided to go over to Hong Kong Island because Hong Kong itself is divided into 3 or 4 different main islands that are very close to each other. Hong Kong Island is where the people with money live and where the downtown area is located. We first grabbed an actual American breakfast at this one café and then I got to ride on a double decker bus for the first time in my life! It was pretty awesome. We went to Victoria Peak, which is the highest point, and took in the wonderful views of the city. We took the double decker back down and this time I sat in the very front which made for an awesome view. We explored a bit by foot when we got back to the Center city and then went to the Botanical & Zoological Park where we saw all different types of monkeys and such. We had lunch at this great Kebab place and then we took the ferry back across the harbor to our side of town. Next, we went to this awesome market close to where we were staying and I ended up getting some cheap crap. We were probably there for a solid 2 hours. After that, we headed back to the hostel and met up with our ‘neighbors’ or the guys who were staying next door to us in the hostel, whom we had also met earlier that morning. They were all from Brazil and were traveling around Asia. We decided to all go to the fireworks together and as we were leaving we ran into this Brit named Andy that was also staying at our hostel and he tagged along with us. Before going back to the hostel, Heather and I had hit up the bubble tea stand, which we frequented 2 times a day, at least, every day we were there. Therefore, by the time we had picked out a spot to watch the fireworks, I had to piss like a racehorse. However, everything was barricaded off and I ended up begging and pleading with a police officer to let me use the bathroom at the Sheraton, he agreed and I ended up having to run UP an escalator that was going DOWN! I nearly face planted but I made it. After my return, we watched the rest of the fireworks and then afterwards we got something to eat with our newfound guy friends at some restaurant nearby.

Victoria Peak - We love Hong Kong!

Hong Kong from the ferry!

Two of our new Brazilian friends. 

Annie in Asia!! 

Next is where things start to get a bit hazy. We returned to the hostel, got ready to go out, and then headed to meet a friend of Heather’s at some nearby bar. By this point our party size had grown to 10 and we ended up ordering a bottle of Vodka. I remember playing the bartender role and making drinks for everyone. Only problem with this picture is the fact that I was throwing back my vodka like I was drinking soju in Korea (which is half the proof of vodka). After we finished the bottle we all headed over to Hong Kong Island in cabs. There, we ended up at some club and danced the night away until I noticed Heather was nowhere to be found!! Needless to say, I panicked, ended up getting a cab home around 4 and Heather was in the bed next to me the next morning, safe and sound, when I woke up hung over, drooling on my pillow around noon. How she got home cannot be discussed, as well as some other details of that night!  It was definitely one of the wildest nights I’ve ever had. I made some great memories and now have some great stories. ;)

Special Mickey Fountain! 

Special Disney Train

Saturday the 5th was a rough morning to say the least, I made Heather go out and get me some McDonald's, which in my opinion, is a great hangover cure. I withered in bed for about an hour before getting up, showering, and preparing myself for our magical day to come! Before we had left the hostel, our British friend Andy came over and hung out while I pulled myself together. He also decided to tag along with Heather and I to Disneyland! Karissa didn't go and instead did something else in the city. Heather and I decided, it was about high time that we make our way over to Hong Kong Disneyland! The theme of the day was, "Fuck Buddha, we're here to see Mickey!"And a grand adventure it was!  The convenient Hong Kong subway shuttled us over to Disneyland, you have to change trains at one stop and the train that took us into Disneyland was a special Disney train with everything Disney! It was pretty cool. As we were coming through the entrance area we noticed this really cool fountain before the gate area. It was a whale that was blowing water out of it's blowhole and mickey mouse was surfing on the water. The coolest thing about this fountain was the fact that it actually moved up and down and looked like mickey was surfing! Next, we collected our tickets and when we entered the park, we each got a chocolate golden mickey coin! Nice touch! Disneyland HK is not as big as the other Disney's. It only has adventureland, fantasyland, tomorrowland, and main street. We first started in adventureland. It was crowded so instead we went to fantasyland and the first ride we went on was the carousel. It was fun, as usual, and then we took the train from fantasyland around to main street where we did some shopping. It was getting a bit chilly so Heather and I bought matching hoodies! :) We had fun exploring the shops and I also bought some pins and pencils for my collections! We then debated on whether or not Andy and I should stage a proposal in front of the castle to see if we could get VIP treatment for the rest of the day. Earlier Andy and I had agreed to marry for visa purposes and just switch places however, Andy is already a dually! Brat. haha

Here we go! :D

Our special golden coins!

Mickey Ice Cream Bars!

Main Street Station.

After roaming around main street, we were headed to tomorrowland when we got distracted by the lighting of the castle. It wasn't nearly as spectacular as the lighting of the castle at home but was still magical nonetheless. At that point in time, I can remember thinking, 'wow I'm lucky to be here with my best friend and our newly found Brit!' :) Happy times! Next we rode space mountain. This was Heather's first experience so she was scared. However, it turned out to be kinda crappy. It didn't really go that fast, didn't have any sudden drops or sudden death turns, and the music was kind of lame. Some weird sci-fi music. Andy said the best one is the one in Disneyland Paris. I told him I'll have to check it out and let him know.... Afterwards we decided on a mickey mouse ice cream bar to make up for our disappointment of space mountain. Then, we noticed that all the lines were practically gone so that's when we went to town...we headed back into fantasy land where we did 'it's a small world.' I actually liked it better than the one at home. Every room is separated into different continents so there is some sort of organization to it. It also featured characters from Disney movies as well, which I thought was cool. After that we rode the tea cups! The tea cups in Asia are much smaller btw. We had a hard time fitting the 3 of us in 1! After that we walked back through adventureland, making our 2nd trip around this park, and jumped onto the Jungle Cruise. It also just so happened that the boat we got on was named AMAZON ANNIE! Hah! It's like it was meant to be or something! Very exciting. The jungle cruise was very similar, it did have some differences though and our tour guide did a good job of making us jump out of our seats at some points. There were however no dole whips in this adventureland. :( The food of the day consisted of us craving some western food and so we took a detour in tomorrowland and ate pretty cheap at what would easily be compared to Starlight Ray's Cosmic Cafe! We took pictures in front of the castle and the entrance. Anytime we asked an Asian family to take our picture, they all got out their camera's as well and took our picture. They tend to do this often, always wanting pictures with or of Western people, but, this was Heather's first experience with it, so her reaction took me for a good laugh!

We love Asia, and matching hoodies!

The day was slowly winding down and on our way out we wanted to do some more shopping and browsing however, as we were coming down main street at the park closing hour, everything was practically shut down!! I couldn't believe it! Usually they keep all that open because people usually shop then. I still don't quite understand this...I guess maybe Hong Kong Disneyland isn't interested in making money??? The way this park is advertised throughout Hong Kong and on their tourism website tells me that maybe they need more business....hmmm....here's a thought...keep your shops open when everyone is on their way out!?! Common sense is lacking in Asia...this just happens to be a prime example.
Leaving was sad, we didn't get to ride every single ride, but it was a different experience and fun nonetheless. The fountain was performing some type of water show to music when we were walking out so we sat by that for a while before catching the train back to the city. Overall, taking the whole experience into account, I wouldn't say that it was better than the Disney at home, just different. I'm glad I got to see another Disney. My dream is to make it to all of them. Tokyo will not happen this time around while I'm in Asia though, it's far too expensive, maybe next year or on my next trip to Asia. :)

The types of characters that you can have your picture with in Asia!

Once we got back to the hostel, Karissa was there waiting for us so we all hung out for a while and then headed out to find dinner. We ate at this awesome place called Mr. Kebab and the owner himself was actually from Turkey! He made us the world's best hummus and kebabs. Him and his son were also trying out a new pizza recipe with this special sausage from Turkey and he was kind enough to share his pizza with us! Such a nice guy! After that we headed back to the hostel, Karissa went back to hers, and Andy, Heather, and I hung out for a while before he went home and we crashed.

Sunday the 6th we slept in a bit, woke up, and had to check out, we left our bags, met up with Karissa and then went back over to Hong Kong island to do some shopping. Heather had 2 more days in HK and Karissa also had an extra day but, since it was my last day, we did what I wanted to do and that was of course...SHOP! Living in Korea I'm very deprived of any good shopping or any successful shopping at that so, it was a real treat to be able to hit up H&M and a few markets and other fun stores before leaving HK. I was actually able to purchase a pair of jeans that I can fit over my thighs and ass. Therefore, the entire trip to HK was a success! :) Once we got back to our island we met up with Andy and went to have one last bubble tea. It was so delicious and I truly miss it! We checked out Andy's new hostel and heather decided that she would stay there instead of Karissa's hostel for a night. Shortly after that it was time for me to catch the bus back to the airport! It was sad saying goodbye to Heather. It had been such an awesome 2 weeks with her! It was strange saying goodbye to Karissa because usually when we travel somewhere together, she's right there on the plane next to me! I've spoken with her recently and she seems to be having a pretty sick trip around SouthEast Asia and I will see her again on March 10th when she returns to Daegu for one night before heading back stateside. :) Saying goodbye to  my new british friend/hubby Andy was also kind of a downer. He was a really cool guy and should be in the states in July by the time I return so maybe I'll see him again sooner rather than later! Overall, Hong Kong has been one of my favorite trips while in Asia. Hong Kong is like Asia's New York City. The majority of the time I felt like I was home in New York City or something. It's very multicultural and has just about everything you'd expect from a big city. Definitely a must see in my opinion. A genuinely fun time! ;)

I had an overnight layover in Beijing and then an early flight to Busan the next morning. Sleeping in the airport wasn't much fun but it was definitely worth saving 400 dollars on airfare! I got back with no problems and no delays. I even made it to work on time! :) I remember starting to feel bad around 4 pm at work that day and then next thing I know..I'm in bed with a fever for almost 3 days! I had to take my last 2 sick days from work, so let's pray I don't get ill before I'm finished here! I went to the doctor and who knows what I really had, frequenting a medical facility in Korea is always risky in my opinion, you just never know if you are really going to get the medicine you need.  I probably had SARS or the Asian Bird Flu..whatever it was...it was awful and I haven't been that sick in a long time.

Since then, I've been busy the last couple weeks of february in planning what's next and such. Emily, Leslie, and I went to Busan for her birthday last weekend, it's weird being the informative now. I much preferred being informed about Korea, now it's the other way around, I'm informing others! As for what's next, back in January I started looking into doing a CELTA certification, basically a teaching certification, so that I can teach ESL anywhere in the world. I do enjoy this job and it helps me to travel the world, which is what I'm interested in doing at this time in my life. I found out right before I left for Hong Kong that I had been accepted to take the course in Valencia, Spain. Heather helped me weigh out the pros and cons and whatnot and I decided to accept the offer. Soooo after I finish my contract here on May 4th, I will leave Korea and head to my favorite place in the world, Spain. I will be there May 6th-June 3rd taking the course and then I plan to travel for about a month before returning to the states on the 29th! :)

My time here in Korea is winding down and I still feel like I have so much to see and do! Ah!

I promise at least one more blog post before I leave this otherworldly planet to head back to western civilization! ;) Thanks for reading thus far, should be quite the interesting summer so stay tuned! 

7 Month Mark - Seoul, Korean Opera, & Andong.

It's official. Today Korea & I are celebrating 7 months together!. Exactly 5 months from today I should be on a plane headed back to the states! I figured what better way to reflect on my time here than a blog update! As usual, lots has happened in the past few months, there never seems to be a dull moment here in Korea, or maybe that's just my life!

Korea and I have a special bond together, I allow it a certain cultural limit everyday and sometimes it cheats and my cultural limit for the day gets maxed out. I've had a few days like this here, full of cultural frustration, mostly things that I find annoying or needing proper help but not being able to get it because of language barriers and such. Here are some noteworthy things that I've observed or embraced recently..

• Jimjilbangs - Korean bath houses..I've learned that I really enjoy this aspect of Korean culture. Going to a bath house and soaking in all the different tubs with a gazillion naked Korean ladies with huge bushes never gets old. They take great pride in their furry muffs too, I've even seen some women blow dry them and fluff them out with combs in the locker room. 
• I learned how to read and write Korean sometime back in October, finally! 
• They live on war food. Plain and simple. Their diet consists of rice, soups, and pickled food like kimchi and radishes galore. It's time to step into the 21st century Korea and quit living like we are in the middle of WWII. The war ended 60 years ago. Let's eat some real food please.
• Korean work culture is very different from Western work culture. The employees are extremely devoted to the company even if they don't want to be, it's like they have to be. I've been told by my boss that they'd glady give up their only day off to attend a work function if it was for the good of the company. The workplace is to be treated like your family from what I can conclude. I don't view this as healthy, a bit to personal, but that's just my opinion!
• Brendan called in sick to work 1 day and he also took the next day off as well. The boss told us he was going to pay a house visit to Brendan's to make sure he was ok since he had to take 2 days off from work. What a psycho. I don't think your boss should ever drop by your house for any reason, another prime example of Korean's not understanding physical or emotional space among westerners. I think he just wanted to make sure he was actually at his house in Daegu, what a spy. I've begun to call him Russia at work bc he's a spy! All I could think was poor Brendan, then I immediately turned to Karissa and told her that if he ever gets another idea like this when I call in sick to send me a text so that I can make sure i'm home in bed looking like death.
• South Koreans are not violent people and live in fear of war with North Korea.
• I also think that they are brainwashed big time when it comes to the importance of education. I find myself taking pity on these poor, overworked, and young Korean students everyday. I'm not a huge fan of how serious they take EVERYTHING, not just education. Although, I find education to be the most serious of all things. Korean's need to lighten up and have some fun..no wonder the suicide rate here is so damn high, it's a miserable life.

Now, for an update of what I've been oh so busy with... :) 

October - The highlight of October was my first trip to Seoul for Global Gathering, another trip for shopping, and Korean Opera! 

Armin Van Buuren! <3

• Global Gathering was a blast, it's a huge dance music festival that travels around to different cities all over the world. When I found out that it was coming to Seoul and Armin Van Buuren was going to be there I immediately signed up! I love Armin Van Buuren and he has been voted the world's best DJ for 4 years in a row. It was blast, I took a bus up with some people from Daegu, first thing we did when we got there after getting our tickets was head to Itaewon (the little American area in seoul) for some taco bell! It was seriously heaven in my mouth, well worth the hassle on the subway with my foot still in a splint at the time! We spent the rest of the evening/night at the festival. There were 3 stages and a lot of Korean DJ's before the main acts came on. Justice & Fat Boy Slim were also there. The whole thing was awesome, dancing in a splint was hard but the alcohol that I consumed in large amounts helped with that for sure! Partied till about 4am and then headed back to Daegu around 5am. Great weekend! Great trip!
• After making it to Seoul once, I decided to brave the huge city by myself 2 weekends later, mostly because I was in desperate need of some clothes that fit. I made a trip on the KTX, korea's high speed train, and literally shopped till I dropped and then shopped some more! I enjoyed taco bell, subway, H&M, Forever 21, Mango, & Zara all to the fullest. It was an extremely successful weekend! Seoul has many different neighborhoods and I managed to see at least 5 while only shopping! Seoul is a huge city and is worthy of another trip for site seeing in the near future. 
• Karissa & I attended an opera here in Daegu as part of the "Daegu Opera festival." Honestly, it was disappointing. We thought, "oh it's opera, and if it's in German than we'll all be on the same page." WRONG! The Koreans, of course, cheated. They did all the singing in German but had subtitles in Korean! SUBTITLES!! I couldn't believe it, what kind of opera has subtitles? Korea always screws up cultural things like this...I don't understand it. Then, on top of that, any of the speaking parts were in Korean. Needless to say, it was not worth 20,000 won in my opinion.

Merry Wives of Windsor Opera

November - Work has been busy in November, lots of schedule changes and such right in the middle of the month. 

Turkey! 



Our Little Christmas Tree!

• Brendan left and has been replaced with a new girl named Emily from Denver, CO! She's great and I think she fits in perfectly here. Getting a new co-worker is always exciting!
• Jeremy & Karissa already have countdowns going for their departure dates and it's started to hit me recently that they'll be leaving soon! It's very sad because the group of people that I hang out with will all be gone around the first of february! :( Korea is very transient, I hate it and love it all at the same time, always new people coming but always good friends leaving too, or people I don't like! Making friends here is a full time job and requires a lot of work! We had a work party to celebrate her coming and four Korean teachers' leaving. Our staff room has definitely shrunk in size recently. 
• I went to Seoul in the middle of November again on a friday night after work. A trip made purely for the pleasure of clubbing! I went with 3 of my friends and we hit up a couple of clubs in seoul and then spent the night in a lovely jimjilbang and then headed back the next morning on the train! Good times with great tunes and great friends! Seoul is where the party's at! 
• Kim Jong Ill in North Korea decided to go crazy and attack a South Korean island..the media has got everyone in a panic about it but until the embassy tells me to evacuate or that there could be danger...I'll be here in Daegu. South Korean's aren't really violent people, so I'm not expecting much retaliation on their part as usual...
• Our little family, Jeremy, Karissa, Palmer, Joel, Emily, & I all celebrated thanksgiving together, we ordered a turkey dinner from this English magazine here and it turned out really nice, we each made something in addition to the turkey, stuffing, gravy, and pumpkin pie and drank wine all evening! We also decorated a little christmas tree together and drew names for secret santa! We have designated Jeremy's house the Christmas house and are all planning on sleeping over Christmas eve, making a big breakfast together the next day, ordering another turkey dinner, and hanging out all day together. I'm really grateful that I have my little Korean family here! :)

December - It's hard to believe that it's already december! Christmas is less than 20 days away! 

• The excitement this month began with bugs...yes that's right...bugs...I had rice in my cupboard that I hadn't used for months, took it out to make some the other night, poured the rice in the pan, added some water and noticed hundreds of bugs floating around! AH! Needless to say, I freaked out, it was very dramatic. I've never experienced anything like this and after calling up about 6 people, my nan was finally able to tell me what they were! Hah! I guess they were rice weevils and are actually pretty common in asia. I don't eat much rice but I've decided that when I do, from now on, I'm buying the pre made kind in the microwavable containers! No matter where I go, I don't seem to be able to escape bugs...Roaches in Barcelona and now Rice Weevils in Korea! Ah!
• For work we will be traveling to Gyeongju this friday. It's supposed to be this workshop for work or something but really they keep saying we are going to 'take a rest.' It's an overnight thing and would take up half my day on Saturday. I straight up told the boss, along with the other foreigners, that we are not staying the night, I said I had made other plans for my weekend, I'm not giving up half my weekend to spend the night sleeping on the floor in a room with 20 of my  Korean coworkers. That's just freaking weird. I could rant about this for hours but I'm just going to leave it at that...I'm not staying the night. Period. We, us 4 foreigners, are taking a bus back together friday night around 9. I think the Korean's are offended but they need to understand that is not what we view as OK in western work culture...another prime example of personal bubble space being lost in translation! haha
• Yesterday - a few of my coworkers and I traveled to Andong, a traditional Korean folk village. A reminder of their not so distant, rural past. Andong is famous for their jimduck, this rural village, and Andong soju which is 45% compared to the regular 18% soju. We first went to the mask museum near the village, we saw lots of Korean masks and other masks from all over the world, mostly Asia though. Some were really cool, some were a little creepy! The Hahoe village is famous for their masks. After the museum we had Andong jimduck for lunch and then headed over to the village and caught the end of a traditional Korean mask dance. It kinda creeped me out they way they were moving around all slow and weird, it's hard to describe, something you'd just have to see. After the mask dancing we wandered around the village, people still actually live in the village but most people have satellite tv and phones nowadays. Nevertheless, it was still cool to see what traditional Korean houses look like and the countryside was beautiful and revitalizing. It was nice to get out of the city for a change. We had a really fun day and headed back to Daegu around 6, had indian food for dinner, and then watched the Grinch back at Jeremy's house while sipping on some soju! 
• Today I picked up my own little xmas tree! They only had pink and black to choose from when I got there, at first I was disappointed, because I wanted a normal christmas tree but then I was like, "oh what the hell!" When and where else in time am I ever going to have a chance to have a pink xmas tree! I find it so fitting for here in Korea because everything is very cutesy! So I did it! I bought the pink tree and decorated it in silver and white! :) Picture below! 

Mask Dance.

Hahoe Folk Village.

Korean Traditional Mask! 

Group Photo! Justin, Emily, Me, and Jeremy!

Andong Mask Museum.

Over the past few months, I've really toned it down on the drinking front, I've made it a point to only have drinks on the weekends, helps me to save money, and keeps me in good shape, I'm taking a break from the rockstar party life that I was living in September! I've also noticed that as I start doing more things and make more friends it becomes harder and harder for me to save money! I'm still saving but could probably do better at it....shopping has become my guilty habit. I've also started to consider a 2nd year here recently. The benefits that this job/lifestyle offers are just too good to walk away from easily, especially with the job market looking the way that it does back home...If I decided to stay another year though, I'd prefer to do it in Seoul or thereabouts. Seoul is definitely a city that I could live in for a year no problem. Daegu is too conservative for my style! I also recently committed to 3 months at the gym, go me! 

Future highlights! - On another note, the new girl that will replace Jeremy, Leslie is scheduled to arrive on December 27th/28th and I will be hosting her in my apartment for 2 weeks until she can move into Jeremy's. I'm not sure what I'll be doing to bring in the New Year yet besides working on New Year's Eve, whatever happens after work though must be massive. I have a feeling 2011 is going to be my year and I need to bring it in nicely! haha .............aaaaaand on another VERY exciting note...my friend Heather from my Greece study abroad trip is living in Australia right now and will be traveling to South Korea on January 26th to stay with me for a little over a week! She's coming here to visit me and I couldn't be more excited!! After her week here we will travel together to Hong Kong, China for lunar new year because I just so happen to be on vacation then! I got an awesome deal on a plane ticket and I'm very excited to travel with her again! I can't wait till she arrives! It's going to be grand! I will be doing winter intensive classes from Jan. 3rd-29th so Hong Kong will be a sweeeeet reward for working crazy 10 hour days again! :D  

Merry Christmas everyone & Happy New Year! Stay tuned for Heather & Annie do Hong Kong, should be a good one! <3 xoxoxo 

The Philippines

34 hours of travel + 6 islands + $150 over budget = An adventure in Paradise!

Our trip started after work Tuesday night around 2:00 am Wednesday morning technically. We caught the 2:20 bus to seoul, in which they employ a crazy bus driver that can get you there in 3 1/2 hours and that's including a 30 min. stop! Usually a solid 4 hour trip. Once we arrived at Incheon we got all checked in and before we knew it I was drugged on my oriental medicine and we were flying through the air! That oriental medicine is some beautiful stuff! We arrived in Manila around 11:30, paid an entrance fee into the country - 200 pesos and proceeded to the domestic terminal where we took a short flight to Cebu in the southern part of the Philippines called the Visayas. From there we had to take a ferry to the island of Bohol where we would be staying for the 1st night. As soon as we arrived we started looking for the same tour guide that our friends recently had on their trip to the Philippines. Luckily, the taxi driver that we had knew him! Must be a small island! He let us use his phone to call and set up a tour time for the next day! The first night we were supposed to stay at this place called Nuts Huts. It's in the Lonely Planet travel guide book but there wasn't really a lot of information about the place. However, when our taxi driver asked us if we had a flashlight and I replied with "for what?" I started to get a little nervous. He said, "Well for the path in case there's a snake or something." Right then and there I was ready to turn back to the port city we landed at and get a hotel room! My 3 biggest fears are: Flying in airplanes, spiders, and then snakes. I don't enjoy any of these things in the least bit! After 17 hours of travel I was exhausted and walking through the jungle in the pitch black dark with just a flashlight was the last thing I wanted to do with a sprained ankle. However, that's exactly what happened.

The guy dropped us off near a wooden sign with some paint that said "Nuts Huts" ---> That way 750m. It was a dirt path that was muddy, with lots of rocks, not a path I wanted to walk with a sprained ankle by any means. Our little flashlight was barely enough light for both of us so I had to resort to using my iphone. Once again, thank god for that little piece of technology that has saved me in so many situations. We walked for what seemed like 30 mins. when in all reality it was probably 15. We finally saw a sign and the longest staircase I've ever personally witnessed. We started our descend and before we knew it we had arrived. As we were checking in I saw the biggest lizard that I've ever seen and I snapped a photo of it at the exact time that it decided to consume a large grasshopper for dinner! Very cool picture! After we got checked in we went about ordering some food and this strange guy showed us to our "hut" and when I say "hut", I literally mean "hut". This place was like something out of adventure land in the magic kingdom at disneyworld. Closely resembling something out of Swiss Family Robinson treehouse - RUGGED! I was not in the least bit thrilled. We climbed up this bamboo thing to our hut and once inside the reality set in that I was going to have to sleep here, there was no going back, we were in the freaking Jungle! I've never actually been in a jungle so it was pretty interesting and scary all at the same time. I saw these yellow things hanging from the ceiling and asked Karissa what that was all about, she of course replied with, "those are our mosquito nets silly!" EEK! We threw our stuff down, and headed back to the main hut for our dinner. I will say that whatever they made for us was probably the freshest food I've had since being in Asia. Fresh picked green beans, carrots, and beef with rice. I'm not sure if I was just starving or what but, I ate every little speckle of food on my plate and I've never been so happy to have white rice in my life! After dinner we headed back to our hut, which was surprisingly named the "baghdad hut." I'm not sure if she put us in that one cause we were American or what, seems kinda racist to me though! haha Even though I was tired, there was no way I was going to be able to sleep without a drink or two so Karissa and I cracked open our first bottle of Rum. I was enjoying a drink when Karissa yells from the bathroom, "Annie! There is no handle on the toilet, how do I flush the toilet?" I go over to survey the scene and quickly realize that there is no handle and then I notice the bucket of water beside the toilet with a huge dipping pan. I put two and two together and combined with my experiences of being without electricity many, many times in WV due to god only knows what, I showed Karissa how to flush a toilet without electricity! She was impressed to say the least and wanted to know how I knew that! My only response was, 'I grew up in West Virginia, would you expect any less!?" After a good laugh I explained to her that you just have to fill a toilet up with enough water, quickly, to make whatever is in it go down, and after losing power in the middle of nowhere at least 3 times a winter,  I know all tricks of the trade when it comes to this kinda crap.

Chocolate Hills

Me with the Tarsier!

I probably got a good 3 hours of shut eye that night in the jungle and when the sun rose at 5:50 am the next morning, I jumped out of bed ready to start the day if it meant leaving the jungle and all of the bugs that came with it behind! It was interesting to see this place in the day light, I mean we literally stayed in a tiki hut in the jungle. Brutal. We had to climb that terrible staircase that we came down the night before which was not enjoyable. Who wants to do a stair-master at 6 am? After we made it back out to the main ride our tour guide picked us up and chauffeured us around in his car all day showing us everything there was to see on the island of Bohol. Our first stop was the man made forest. This is where, 750 years ago, a nearby town planted all these mahogany trees in one area. It has since then become a protected area with the tallest trees I've ever seen! Next, we headed to the hanging bridge made entirely out of bamboo. We walked across the river and back and sipped fresh coconut juice and ate coconuts! Quite the island experience. Then we headed to the Chocolate Hills, one of the natural wonders of the world, and Asia. There were over 1000 of these little mound-like hills that turn a brown color May-August and resemble little hershey kisses! They were mostly all green when we were there but there were still 1 or 2 that had some brown patches.  After that, we visited a butterfly sanctuary where we learned about butterflies and moths and the followed that up with a friendly visit to the smallest primate in the world, the tarsier! I thought he was the cutest thing in the world, very strange looking, but still cute just because they are so small! I was excited because I got to hold him and let him crawl all over me but, Karissa felt differently, she held him for 30 seconds and was done! (pictures on FB) Next we headed for a river cruise, it was pretty much exactly like the jungle cruise at disneyworld except there was a buffet with food on the boat!  I felt like I was sailing down the Amazon at one point. The jungle is a very mystic place. Next we saw the oldest Catholic church on the island and then the Blood Compact Statue where hundreds of years ago the Spanish and the Filipinos made peace. There is still a very heavy Spanish influence in the Philippines.  Their language has many spanish words and the fact that the majority of the population is still Roman Catholic speaks volumes when you think about the scary Muslim influence there. Our entire tour was awesome, we saw so many things but around 2 pm, Jojo drove us over to Panglao island where we would spend the next 3 days of our vacation on the beautiful, white sand, clear water, Alona Beach!

When we arrived at the hotel, the didn't have our reservation. Right then and there I was regretting our decision to stay there. They finally gave us our room, thank goodness I made a print out of the confirmation page! The staff was extremely rude to us and Karissa and I refused to eat at the hotel restaurant because we were afraid they would spit in our food. We got into our room and just wanted to shower and relax before having dinner. Well, we couldn't get the shower to work and that was when we realized that there was no telephone in our hotel room. What kind of hotel room doesn't have a telephone!?! They also didn't have a hair dryer on property. Like, hello? I didn't know we were paying hotel prices to stay at a hostel! Even hostels have hair dryers to borrow! No blankets either, just sheets, the safe didn't come with clear instructions, and the beds were literally like rocks. Being a hotel person, I was pissed to say the least but whatever, we decided we weren't going to let it ruin anything. We headed out and hand picked our dinner, rabbit fish, fresh from the ocean! It was a great end to our day! We enjoyed some rum and coke while looking out onto the beach and then called it a night because we had a boat tour at 5:45 am the next morning.

I've chosen to title this day of the trip Island Hopping on the Holy Family with Captain Johnny!

Virgin Island

 We got up around 5:30! Please don't ask why I was rising so early on vacation. I haven't seen these kind of times since last spring when I was still attending university and working a full time job and I'm still trying to figure out why I wanted to put myself through that agony. Anywho, we boarded this small boat called the holy family, (the main seat  had "Jesus Christ" in red paint all over it) with our captain for the day named Johnny. We had me his cousin the day before at the restaurant we ate at and he volunteered his cousin to take us out for the day on an tour. Our first stop was dolphin watching. I've never seen dolphin's in their natural habitat, only in aquariums, so the first time I saw a dolphin leap out of the water I was amazed! Just watching them swim around the boats full of people who had come to watch them have their breakfast was an experience in itself! After that we proceeded to the first island on our tour where we jumped off the side of the boat and snorkeled over the most amazing coral reef! I've only seen coral reef like this in aquariums and seeing it up close and personal and actually touching it and getting close to the fish was just unbelievable! It was one of the prettiest things! Coral reef is so colorful and alive, who knew such real beauty lurked so close to the surface! I wish I could do more stuff like that on a regular basis back home. Close to the end of snorkeling I think I got stung by a jelly fish and then not even 1 minute later, Karissa did too! We were finished anyways so we boarded the boat again and headed to inland to the island where we Karissa shared a beer with Johnny and I tried some cocnut wine! The next island was called the virgin island, they call this because it's hard to get to, and hard to get out of! (At least that's what captain johnny told us!) haha It was basically just like a sandbar out in the middle of the ocean, it's obviously a newer island and you could tell that it's still forming, it had maybe 1 or 2 little tiny trees and some grass growing in some of the sand. It's pretty cool seeing something like that that you know is still in the process of developing. 10 years from now, I wonder how much bigger it will be? The small little island was full of starfish galore! I had a blast with them and decided at one point it would be a good idea to spell out all of our initials in starfish! Captain Johnny also gathered some sea urchins from the water for us to try. He did the dirty work cracking them open and I had the disgusting pleasure of eating one. I'm not a fan of slimy fish like mussles, clams, oysters, etc. So the sea urchin didn't settle well with my tastes. Nonetheless, it was an experience and took me straight back to my greece days of eating fresh clams with lemon juice fished out of the ocean by the sexy swedish intern. haha Those were the days! After all that excitment, we headed back to the main island, grabbed a quick lunch, and took a much deserved nap before showering and enjoying a bottle of rum and coke before dinner!

 We had another great dinner that night, fish again, this time white snapper and parrot fish, I also had the traditional Filipino dessert called Halo Halo, it was like ice cream in a bowl of corn-flakes with jellies, it was strange but parts of it were enjoyable. Some sexy guys also sent over a tequila shot that i took like a champ even though I hate tequila! The terrible downpour of rain prevented our night from getting much wilder, we were in bed again by 9:30 like 80 year old grandma's!

The next morning we slept in till about 9 o'clock then had a lovely breakfast before embarking on our scuba diving adventure! We met our scuba instructors at the dive shop around 10:30 and then headed out on the boat to the same small island that we went snorkeling at. It's supposedly some of the best coral reef in the area. We dove on the other side of the island though. The oceans were really rough on the way out and we were worried about diving in the conditions but our guide said that it would be fine. Once we arrived we immediately got into the water and started our lesson. I'm not sure if I thought there would be a minute to gain my composure or what? All I knew is that this was really happening and I was nervous! We learned how to do a mask clearing, which is scary, and our airway clearing as well as a few other necessary things. Before I knew it, we were going down! I was nervous that I would need to come up for something? I'm not sure why but the thought of being 10 meters under and not being able to just go up to the surface for some air is a little unsettling for me! As soon as it started though I was so distracted by the beautiful things that I was seeing that I didn't even notice what was going on, grass on the sea floor, so many bright and colorful fish, I saw Nemo and all of his friends! The ocean is just full of life! It was awesome seeing these things in their natural habitat as opposed to in an aquarium, you can practically reach your hand out and touch them without them being too scared! Being our first dive and all, our instructors went with us of course and held on to us and sort of guided us, really nice of them honestly because I could have easily gotten lost! I was a little claustrophobic at some points but I managed to stay calm. Karissa and I had purchased an underwater camera but it's hard to take pictures when you are trying to think about breathing! The pictures that came out are on facebook if you'd like to see more! We went down 10 meters (30 feet) and were under for about 30 mins. It's the most amazing world under the sea and I can't wait to do it again! I'm going to put it up there on my list of "the coolest things I've ever done!" If you ever have the chance to go diving, it's worth every penny, luckily, we didn't have to pay that much compared to what it would cost in most places because everything is cheap in the Philippines! Great experience! After we dove we had to wait for these annoying chinese people to go, they spoke hardly any English, I can't imagine being a diving instructor for people who barely speak English! Scary! So, in the meantime, Karissa and I snorkeled a little bit and went inland and sat on the beach for a while, it was fun! The boat ride back was equally as exciting and rough, at one point I thought we were going to capsize, it was like something off deadliest catch! I've never been out in the ocean on a boat when the waters are rough like that! Thrilling! After we returned we got 9 dollar hour long body massages on the beach! They were fabulous!! :) So cheap and probably better than some professional massages I've had done in the states.  After that we did some shell searching on the beach, had a light snack and then went for showers before dinner. Our food that night was not the best, we wanted tuna like Ahi Tuna, instead we got grilled tuna and it tasted like something out of a can! We had some drinks at a bar that night and started a conversation with some Swedish lady that spends her winters there as a diving instructor, she eventually started to bore us and  the nightlife was not huge on this small island so we headed to bed around 12.

Our final morning was spent lounging on the beach, but not without some fruit pancakes and eggs first! I had mango, pineapple and banana pancakes for breakfast! Delicious! We relaxed on our beautiful white sand beach complete with crystal clear blue waters and starfish all around! Next we showered, checked out and waited for our tour guide from the first day, JoJo, to pick us up! He arrived and took us back into the jungle for our last adventure....zip lining! Basically what happens is they harness you all up and send you flying across this river gorge on a tiny little cable! Scary to say the least! Being so adventuress the past few days though, I actually found it quite fun, almost like a roller coaster! On the way back to the port JoJo stopped in this small town and we got to witness a Filipino cockfight. A HUGE tradition in the Philippines on a Sunday. JoJo said it's what all the men in the town do and I believe it because the place was chocked full of nothing but men, the only women I saw were the ones outside cooking the dead chickens! It was sweaty and stinky but we stuck around for at least 20 mins. to see some action, it's quite a brutal sporting event. They tie knives around the chickens' legs, get them mad at each other, and then let them fight to the death! I posted a lovely video on facebook if you dare to have a look. After all that excitement we headed to the port where our 17 hours of travel began again! We didn't have much money left so when we got to the airport I thought to ask about having to pay an exit fee since we had to pay an entrance fee...turns out...we did and it just so happened that we had no more cash, and between us an American Express card that wouldn't work in any machine and my Mastercard which i didn't know the pin number for and our Korean bank cards. It was not a pretty situation. We scrounged up enough Korean won between the two of us to pay the fee to get out of Cebu and agreed that when we got to Manila we would have to come up with a different plan. Well, when we arrived we tried every ATM machine with no luck, we were in a panic and explained out situation to the foreign officers but to no avail. They were actually kind of rude to us so we had to go over and talk to our airline, they suggested we ask fellow passengers on the same flight to loan us some money until we could pay them back in Korea!! She wanted us to be beggars!? Karissa and I were at the mercy of Koreans!! NEVER a good thing in our opinion! However, they brought up a translator, thank god, because lord knows any Korean over the age of 16 does not speak hardly any English, all they know is hello and make it a point to let you know every time you pass one of them on the street. Luckily the translator woman worked her magic and these nice business guys just handed us the money like it was pocket change. We promised to pay them back but just looked at us with this confused look, I'm guessing it was because they didn't understand us but whatever. So, we board the plane, I have some oriental medicine and the next thing I know, our red eye flight has landed and it is 6 am Seoul time! We get off the plane, took forever to get through passport control because of the stupid Chinese people not having their paperwork in order. **PEOPLE** If you are traveling to another country, make sure you have the correct documentation upon arrival, after a 4-5 hour flight you'd think they'd have this shit together, but then again, it is China. Anywho...after we made it through we couldn't find our generous Korean friends! We looked everywhere and waited forever and eventually we just gave up! Thank god for their kindness though or I'd probably still be stranded on that island!!

What a great vacay! Seoul is next! Stay Tuned! :)

Chuseok

In Korea, they celebrate this holiday called Chuseok, it's a 3 day holiday in which they pray to their ancestors for a good harvest. It always falls right in the middle of the week - Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Whoever is planning out the holiday calendar is an idiot. Who wants 3 days off in the middle of the week and then have to work Monday and Friday!? This prevents further travel around this time period. DISLIKE. So Monday, after the work day was complete, our boss gave us all a Chuseok present - 4 cans of tuna in oil and 3 BOXES of seaweed! - Mmmmmm, my favorite! NOT! What the hell am I going to do with 3 boxes of seaweed? 3 Boxes!! The tuna, in oil not water, I could stomach if I was poor and starving. 

It was nice gesture though. With 3 days off ahead of me, I wasn't sure what to do. 

Tuesday I went for a run to the river and walked around the park but my ankle was hurting pretty bad so I decided to go back home. I noticed Monday that my ankle was swollen but didn't really think too much of it. Wednesday I didn't leave my house all day! I was so lazy! I stayed home, iced and elevated my swollen ankle and watched season 1 of Gossip Girl! It was cold and rainy all day so I probably wouldn't have gone outside anyways. 

Thursday I decided to be somewhat productive. Karissa and I got up early and went for a hike! We hiked up Palgongsan mountain to see this huge statue of Buddha balancing a book on his head, called Gatbawi. It was carved out of this mountain rock in the 7th century?? It was quite the hike if I do say so myself. It was like doing the stairmaster for a good 1 hour. It was also crowded. I think hiking is the most popular hobby among Koreans. The get all dressed up in these hiking outfits, climb the mountain without sweating, and then sit down for a full out meal on a hot plate and drink booze. It's insane. Chaos is the best word to describe the scene at the top of the mountain. There were probably at least 100 people praying on these little mats and lighting candles and such. It was quite the sight to see. Legend has it that if you pray for one wish whole heartedly at this statue, and if you really, really mean it, it will come true. I was tired but I tried to pray for my one wish meaningfully. Still hasn't come true yet thought...so I'm doubting the powers of this mountain Buddha. After we descended the mountain we proceeded to the next stop on the tour - this beautiful temple. It was under construction but still lovely nonetheless. After the temple we headed to the hot spring spa in this same area. Karissa had never been to a jinjabong (Korean bathhouse) before so this was her first go around with the naked Korean ladies! haha It wasn't what we expected it to be but it was still nice. They had many different pools but only 3 outdoor pools feed by the hot spring. It definitely wasn't as nice as the hot springs we visited in Taiwan, but it was still nice, just very crowded. We ended the day with a chicken club sandwich to celebrate all that we had accomplished and were home by 6! 

Next day it was time to go back to work...boo! My ankle was even worse the next day so I decided to go to the doctor before work. His english is not the best, but long story short I have a sprained ankle! I can't believe that I ran tuesday and then hiked on it thursday! No wonder it was hurting so bad! He gave me some meds to help with the swelling and told me to stay off of it, which is almost impossible. It was still hurting Tuesday, the day before we were supposed to leave for the Philippines, so I went back to the doctor and now I have to wear a splint on my foot for 2-3 weeks until all the tenderness is gone! Hopefully it heals itself soon because I want to get back to the gym! 

Taiwan

Taiwan, Taiwan, where to begin! An amazing trip to say the least! This vacation came at a much needed time, right in the middle of my summer intensive courses. This was my first trip out of Korea since arriving and I was excited to get the hell outta here for a few days! Karissa and I wanted to go somewhere for vacation and we both agreed that we wanted to be on a beach somewhere with a drink in our hands....and that is how our trip to Taiwan was born. The theme of this vacation you ask?...well that's easy.. Bikini's and Booze! A girls getaway!

Day 1 - Karissa and I caught the 5:00 am bus out of Daegu for Incheon, aka Seoul's main airport. We arrived ahead of schedule so we went up to the ticket counter to get our boarding passes and the nice lady working the ticket counter upgraded us to first class!! AHH!! We were soo excited! I've always wanted to fly in first class and I've always dreamed about the day that I would get an upgrade! Needless to say, this vacation was already off to an amazing start! We stopped by the pharmacy to pick up some anti-anxiety something or another for my fear of flying. They gave me some oriental medicine or something that is supposed to help you relax! We made our way to the gate and before we knew it, it was time to get onto the plane! Now, this medicine came in two parts, one part was this little round container full of a bunch of brown balls that looked like BB gun pellets or something - probably like 10 or 12 and then it came with a bottle of liquid that you are supposed to chug after you take the little balls! When it came time to actually take it,  I started to feel a little nervous because who really knows what it was! I took all the little balls down in one gulp and then proceeded to chase it with the liquid stuff but it was the nastiest taste that I have ever had in my mouth! UGH! I could barely finish it! It was potent! We got to board the plane first because we were first class and just stepping into the first class cabin was like walking into luxury! We flew with Asian Airlines which is a nice airline and the plane we were on looked pretty new. We took our seats, and the flight attendants began waiting on us hand and foot! It was amazing! We got english newspapers, so many magazines to choose from, fresh squeezed orange juice, slippers...and that was only the beginning! As soon as we got in the air, Karissa and I decided that we were going to drink free booze until we couldn't drink anymore! They came around the cabin with the first round of drinks and we of course ordered champagne! After that they came around with the menu for the flight.. We had scallops and a salad for an appetizer, filet mignon for the main course, and tiramasu for dessert! Then they came around with a white linen service and actual silverware, it was great! The whole flight was just amazing, after lunch(breakfast for us), we continued with the drinking, we probably each had a bottle of white wine, then some baileys and coffee and some other special teas and such. It was only a 2 1/2 hour flight and we were sad to see it end but, I will say this, there was no fear on my part during the flight! Either the oriental drugs or the booze did the trick, or maybe it was a combination of both!!! After we got through immigration and such we caught a bus into Taipei and began to locate our hostel. It was in a great location, right in the middle of everything. After we dropped our stuff off, we were still on a luxury/booze high, we began to explore the city.

First things first...we visited this lovely peace park and then from there we saw the most amazing temples and gardens! Taiwan is so drastically different from Korea in such a good way. The temples and the details put into the gardens were just phenomenal! Each time we went from one site to the next, we were even more amazed at the beauty this city had to offer. This was also my first time actually visiting a temple. I've seen one here in Korea but couldn't go inside at the time so this was my first up close and personal Buddhist experience. We walked soooo much that day and it was unbearably hot outside! We were so sweaty! After visiting many temples and experiencing some Taiwan culture we decided to hit up the night markets - what Taiwan is really known for! Night markets are a huge part of their culture. It's basically like a night festival or fair with tons of food vendors, people selling junk, with a few other crazy things in the mix. We had scoped out this one night market where we heard you could drink snake blood and eat snake! We decided to check it out and the rumors were true! We didn't eat or drink snake anything but, I took some pictures and it was an unbelievable site to see! We saw some real freakshows that night. Here in Korea they don't really have freak-shows or crazy people, they keep them locked up and on the down-low, so it's rare that you'll have an encounter with a crazy. We also tried all sorts of excellent food. There was so much to choose from and we didn't really know what everything was but we just kept trying stuff until we were so full we thought we were going to burst! We also got bubble tea drinks because that's another thing Taiwan is known for and they were delicious! We kept seeing these massage places everywhere and this one guy named David, that was wearing this gaudy USA shiny shirt, drew us into his establishment where we had the best leg/foot massages ever! Considering the fact that we were already really tired and our feet were killing us, it was like heaven on earth! This lady beat the crap out of my legs, feet, shoulders, and neck! The entire 45 min massage only set me back $9 USD! CRAZY! After that we set about to find this drink called Whisby that we had read about in our lonely planet. We went into this one liquor store assuming it would be there and this nice guy that didn't speak much english took us out of his shop and all around the night market to help us find it! He went out of his way to make sure that we found what we were looking for! Taiwanese people are so hospitable! I had heard they were some of the nicest people but I wasn't really sure what to believe but, on more than one occasion on this trip people just wanted to help us and make sure we were having a good time! Something like that would NEVER happen in Korea! So anyways, we find the whisby at a pharmacy, purchase it, and being to indulge. It's a strange drink, like an energy drink packed with some vitamins and with a little extra boost of some liquor! It tasted almost like bubble gum and we thoroughly enjoyed it! After the whisby we tried some other liquor that was supposed to be Taiwan's main liquor - it was like drinking gasoline! We had maybe 2 sips each before we decided we couldn't drink it because it was THAT strong! I mean literally - like gasoline! Probably just as deadly too! We were a little buzzed throughout the whole day so the walk back to the hostel was an interesting one, at one point we had to stop and pee in a desolate parking lot...haha...Karissa had to stop midstream because someone was coming! Hilarious times! When we made it back to the hostel we were beyond exhausted!! We crashed and slept for a good 9 hours!

Day 2 -We got off to an early start around 9. The first thing on our list to see was Taipei 101. It was officially ranked as the tallest building in the world since 2004, BUT since the Burj Khalifa in Dubai opened last year, it can no longer claim that glory to fame. It's the tallest building I've ever been in so that has to count for something! When we first arrived we checked out the amazing food court that we had heard about in the basement level. It was literally one of the best food court's I've been in. They had everything to choose from and Karissa and I had the hardest time trying to decide what to eat! We finally settled on sushi and mandu. After that we bought our tickets and rode the fastest elevator in the world to the top of the building! It was pretty cool if I do say so myself! Once atop, we took pictures, looked out all the windows, and browsed around the gift shop where I bought my first pencil since being in Asia! :) What an accomplishment, right!? We then took the elevator back down and walked around the huge mall that comprises the first 5 stories of the building. It was similar to walking around  Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, designer stores everywhere filled with nothing that I could afford. Fun to window shop nonetheless. After Taipei 101 we headed over to the Jade and flower markets! Two semi-indoor markets one filled with tons of Jade, (some real, some fake I'm sure) and then the Flower market which was just lovely and colorful! We spent a good amount of time here and then proceeded to do some shopping. We were pretty unsuccessful because we kept getting lost and eventually we gave up and headed back to the hostel for showers before hitting up another night market!
After regrouping, we decided to go to Taiwan's most famous night market, Shilin Night Market. We spent the evening here stuffing our faces with the most amazing food I've ever tasted! We had beef noodle soup, tons of delicious fresh fruit, dumplings, shrimp, so many different kinds of meat on a stick, stinky tofu, and so much more! The food was by far the best at this night market! We also did a little bit of shopping. This market was more of a free for all whereas the other one had some structure to how it was set up, including actual buildings and a designated area. We also enjoyed the younger crowd at this market as compared to the night before. It wasn't long until we were exhausted and took the subway back to the hostel and passed out.

Day 3 - Beach and Spa day! We really wanted to have a day at the beach so we picked one of the many beaches out of our book and got on a bus! A bus to Jinshan to be exact. When we arrived in the town, we had to ask for directions at a  7/11 and this nice guy told us how to get there, so we started walking and then next thing we know, he is picking us up in his elementary school bus van! He drove us down to the beach and after we realized what a trek it could have been we were relieved! Such a nice guy! Like I said, the people in Taiwan were all so nice like this! So helpful! So anyways, we get to the beach and there is literally not a soul in sight! It was kinda nice! We assumed that most kids were in school because it was a Monday but still, we were the only ones there! The beach was ok, not exactly what we were expecting, but nonetheless it was still nice to be relaxing on the sand staring out at the ocean.. After the beach we changed and decided to find the hot springs that were supposed to be nearby. We wanted to visit this resort that we had read about in our book so we went to the main tourist building and they called us a cab and he took us to this GORGEOUS 5 start resort in the mountains! It was unbelievable! We paid maybe $20 USD to use the facilities all afternoon and evening! It was basically a hot spring resort and they had at least 20-30 different hot spring pools for us to relax in. They came in all flavors and temperatures - hot, scalding hot, cold, coffee flavored, lavender, green tea, you name it they had it! They also had an infinity pool looking out over the mountains with water massage chairs which were fabulous! It was such a relaxing day and by far one of the best spa experiences I've had! We were sad to leave. After lounging around all afternoon though we were starving and sat down for what turned into a 10 course meal at the resort! 10 courses and all you could drink draft beer for like $15 USD! Amazing! The food was great and shortly after that we had this sexy guy working the hotel front desk call us a cab so we could get back to the bus station! The bus ride back was an adventure in itself. SCARY! We were going really fast around these hairpin turns, it seemed very dangerous. We crashed pretty early after talking to a girl at our hostel about what we should do the next day...

Day 4 - We decided to go to the very end of the subway line towards the north to a town called Danshui? Something like that maybe. We really weren't that impressed because nothing was open! We contributed this to the fact that it was too early.. around 10 - not early by western standards but in Asia - this is early. All we wanted was some breakfast for once! We walked around forever and it was already so hot! We finally found this little cafe with actual american style breakfast food, we had never been so thankful! We stuffed our faces and got back on the train to see this temple. The temple was quite a sight to see, very lavishly decorated and we saw so many different buddhist statues at this place of all these different gods. There were just hallways packed with them! They looked pretty cool though so I snapped some photos! hehe After the temple we attempted to find the Beitou hot springs. We took the train to the stop, walked all around the area, finally found them and then they were closed for the next 45 mins! UGH! We were so mad and hot and thirsty that we just gave up and headed back to the hostel because it was almost time to leave! I think we were overheated and just wanted cold showers honestly. We got just that and then caught the bus back to the airport. We didn't get to fly first class on the way back, but we still got to booze it up in economy for free! We threw back some wine with our in-flight meal, which was actually good and in combination with my other dose of oriental medicine, it was a smooth ride. We made it back to Daegu around 2 in the morning because the first bus from Incheon was booked so we had to wait another hour.

A few things to note about Taiwan: I really enjoyed this country, the people are very hospitable, always willing to lend a helping hand and we really appreciated that! What a great country for tourism! Also, I noticed almost everyone spoke some amount of English and most people, spoke it very well. Their subway or metro system called the MRT, is very cheap and efficient and they even had these special waiting areas for females after dark with cameras and help buttons. Seriously, what a great idea! They also have these lines on the floor for people who are going to enter the subway to line up on, then when the train comes, people exit in one direction and you board almost single file onto the train in the other direction! So efficient! All metros need this system. Even though Taipei is a huge city the air quality there, compared to the air quality here in Daegu, was drastically different, much cleaner and it actually felt like a city as composed to a large suburb full of apartment buildings. We also noticed that we didn't get as many stares as we do here on a daily basis! Not very many people stared at us at all actually, it was quite nice not being noticed for a change! One thing that we loved about Taiwan was the amount of mopeds or scooters! They are everywhere and there are so many! We decided to call them scooter gangs! Overall it was a great trip and I would love to go back to Taiwan for the food, the people, and the beautiful scenery (handsome men included!).



On a side note - Karissa and I discussed the weight limit issue for airlines and how they make fat people buy two seats now and blah blah blah....we came to the decision that for every one person you should be allowed 250 lbs. of weight. Including yourself! This means that if you weigh 200 lbs. than you are only allowed 50 lbs. of luggage. Therefore, if you weight 150 lbs. you are allowed 100 lbs. of luggage. Etc. This is such a grand idea! It might also help American's think about the next big mac they are about to shove down their throat's....do you wanna take those jeans on vacay next week or do you wanna eat this sandwich bitch!? hahahahaha Brilliant - a new way to a skinny America! :D


Up next... the Philippines! Stay tuned!